The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark or the Hamlet is one of the most famous tragedies written by William Shakespeare. It tells a story of the Danish prince Hamlet who wanted to retaliate upon his uncle Claudius. The man killed his brother king and took his place. Hamlet found the truth with the aid of his father’s ghost and decided to revenge. His actions led to the death of all main and the most part of the secondary characters. The prince did not survive too. The Hamlet was performed and cinematized many times. Researchers also create theories about its main topic and use different parts of the plot to prove them. This essay will be focused on Hamlet and Ophelia. The play has only several female characters. In fact, there are only Hamlet’s mother Gertrude and prince’s potential girlfriend Ophelia in the original story. The girl does not have many lines and dies before main events, but her interactions with the prince help to learn a lot about the play’s meaning. It shows how women’s passiveness and obedience can lead to negative consequences. The play also demonstrates men can easily manipulate by weaker persons to achieve their goal.
Ophelia is presented as an ideal daughter from the beginning of the play. She obeys without a grumble to her brother’s and father’s decisions. Her father Polonius tries to use the situation for his own hand. He thinks about privileges that can appear after the couple’s marriage, while Laertes does not support this bond: “For Hamlet and the trifling of his favour, hold it a fashion and a toy in blood” (Shakespeare 20). Right now Polonius uses this relationship to look after prince. Ophelia does not know about father’s role in the story and does not try to find it out. She follows her father’s orders and agrees to distance herself from the prince: “No, my good lord, but, as you did command, I did repel his fetters and denied his access to me” (Shakespeare 40). Ophelia helps Hamlet’s enemies indirectly even if she does not want to hurt him. For example, she informs Polonius about prince’s emotional condition. Ophelia’s father shares this information with the king: “I will be brief: your noble son is mad: mad call I it; for, to define true madness, what is't but to be nothing else but mad?” (Shakespeare 43). While Hamlet only imitates insanity, Claudius and other do not know about it and use Ophelia’s words to prove his mental disorder. Letters that were given by the girl became an additional evidence of prince’s madness.
Shakespeare showed Ophelia felt sympathetic towards Hamlet, but its level or girl’s obedience and nature did not allow it to develop into stronger feelings. While her actions did not do much harm to Hamlet, there could be worse consequences in slightly different conditions. Without regard to the supernatural events, the play turns into a story of a man with signs of psychological disorder or nervous breakdown. Hamlet suffers because of his father’s death and mother’s new marriage. Shakespeare did not show that the royal family had close relations between its members. The queen and the prince did not have square talks before Polonius’s murder. It is easy to imagine a picture of family with the lack of emotional closeness. It affected Hamlet and the coldness of the potential girlfriend and bride could make the situation worse. However, it does not happen because of prince’s own attitude. Ophelia did harm only to herself in the original Shakespeare’s play.
Hamlet is focused on his father’s death. The revenge to Claudius became his main priority after the meeting with the ghost. Hamlet could really like Ophelia, but his feelings moved to the background because of these events. The final monologue of the Act II shows that the prince thinks only about his future investigation: “I have heard that guilty creatures sitting at a play have by the very cunning of the scene been struck so to the soul that presently they have proclaim'd their malefactions” (Shakespeare 59). Hamlet’s following behavior shows Ophelia became a tool for his intrigues as well as she was treated by Polonius and Claudius. I can not say that the prince did not feel anything to the girl. The scene after the “to be or not to be” monologue can show that Hamlet wanted to buffer her from castle’s intrigues. Prince’s words in the second scene of the Act II can be treated in the same way. Hamlet could hint at Claudius when he mentioned “the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god kissing carrion” (Shakespeare 46) and suggest Polonius to keep Ophelia away from sunlight. It was a common tradition to compare rulers with the Sun for that period of time. However, Hamlet’s attitude to Ophelia changed. “Get thee to a nunnery, go: farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go, and quickly too” (Shakespeare 65). These words show he did not only warn her and protect from possible consequences of his revenge, but also started to suspect the girl. The scene also could be a sign that Hamlet already started to use Ophelia as a tool to demonstrate his abnormal behavior to enemies. This theory was supported by events during actors’ performance. Hamlet showed demonstrative attention and passion to Ophelia when he flirted with her and lay down at girl’s feet.
It is difficult to say what prince did really feel to Polonius’s daughter. However, it looks like Hamlet did not care too much about the girl and only used her in his play. Prince’s real attitude could be shown after the Polonius’s death. Hamlet did not say anything about the possible consequences of his actions for Ophelia. He did not do anything to prevent her breakdown and following death. Prince’s strange behavior could be one of the reasons of girl’s insanity. Hamlet demonstrated total indifference during Ophelia’s funerals. He showed more feelings to the Yorick's skull than to his girlfriend’s body. The former jester deserved a monologue, while there was only one line when Hamlet saw the reason of the ceremony. Prince’s attitude changed during the dialogue with Laertes: “I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love” (Shakespeare 126). But these words looked more like another attempt to show his insanity, rather than the demonstration of real sorrow.
The analysis of Hamlet’s interactions with Ophelia shows how people can easily forget about relations in favor of other feelings and goals like revenge. It also demonstrates that even close people can forget about feelings and wellbeing of other individuals. Ophelia became a tool for manipulations. Neither her father nor Hamlet cared much about the girl’s welfare. For example, Polonius sent Ophelia to Hamlet after he started to imitate insane behavior. In other words, father consciously pushed his daughter for the meeting with the hazardous person. Hamlet also treated Ophelia as a tool in his game. Most of his words and actions, including the scene where prince said about a monastery and his disappeared love, were designed for the potential auditory. While Polonius’s death became the key factor of Ophelia’s breakdown, Hamlet’s behavior also could lead to this condition and following suicide. The girl showed negative effects of obedience and naivety from her side. Hamlet described Gertrude’s actions with words “Frailty, thy name is woman!” (Shakespeare 15). The prince did not say anything like that about Ophelia, but readers can characterize her with the proverb “though modesty be a virtue, yet bashfulness is a vice”. The girl did not think how her words and actions can affect Hamlet’s fate. Ophelia obeyed to father’s orders and did not show own opinion. It is possible she would not become mentally deranged and killed herself, if she would have stronger personality.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”. W3.org. n. d. 17 March 2016. <https://www.w3.org/People/maxf/XSLideMaker/hamlet.pdf>
